Google Certified Educator

*Originally posted on my previous blog www.mrbowkerinmalaysia.com in August 2021*

Mission accomplished!!! I am now a Google Certified Educator (Level 1). I am super chuffed.

What does it mean to be a Certified Educator?

The Google Certified Educator program aims to provide teachers the training and skills to “successfully implement Google for Education into their teaching practice to enhance teaching and learning”. There are various levels of qualification. The one I have just completed is Level 1, which covers the basics. Following this there is a 'Level 2' qualification for implementing more advanced technology in the classroom (something I am looking at doing over the next academic year), the Google Certified Trainer course - which, as the name suggests, enables those who have taken it to provide training sessions on the use of Google for Education Tools, and a Google Certified Innovator course for those who are truly innovative and are passionate about honing their skills and advancing them to a new level whilst inspiring others. For this there is an international conference. The reasons for taking these courses are varied but include gaining confidence in using technology in the classroom, working towards a paperless classroom, upskilling in managing data and tracking pupil progress, creating an engaging learning environment, increasing digital citizenship and digital literacy within the class, becoming more efficient in the use of technology, showing a continuing professional development, and joining a group of like minded teachers who are also certified. In my opinion, Google are fantastic at supporting teachers, creating software that is intuitive to use, and easy to learn; because Google has a large focus on Education there are many features of their software that are designed specifically to support teachers and pupils in areas such as; collaborative work, engagement, assessments, organisation, and communication - among others. Taking time to train yourself how to best use these in the classroom makes perfect sense to me, and joining the ranks of other educators (many who I follow and inspire me) who have done this before is a motivating factor.

My Journey to becoming Google Certified

Having used Google for Education for the most recent academic year I was quite familiar with a lot of the software e.g. Slides, Gmail, Docs etc - however I am far from an expert with these. Fortunately Google has a free, at your own pace, training centre online that covers all the the essentials required to upskill and gain the accreditation.

The training consists of 13 units covering topics such as collaborative work, collecting and analysing student data, and moving towards a paperless classroom.

Having these distinct areas gives a clear focus to the learning and time frames are given for each area (around about an hour for each). For some of these I took longer when I was learning to use software I was unfamiliar with and wanted to have an in depth play with them (Sheets, Google Keep) and for others I sped through having felt comfortable and familiar with the software and content.

At the end of each section there is a quick check for what has been covered; I found very useful, especially for the sections I was scanning through quickly as it enabled me to confirm that my experience using the tools gave me enough knowledge to move on. For areas that were new to me, it gave me the confidence to move on knowing I had grasped the core contents.

The Exam

The exam itself costs only $10 and once you sign up you have a week to complete it. The exam is 3 hours and is open book (or in this case, open computer); I set up two devices and used one for the exam and the other to research any questions I wasn't sure about. This is intentional on the part of Google. The aim is to support educators in learning to use the software and this approach certainly encourages that. As for the exam itself I had 18 multiple choice questions and 10 task questions. The tasks are a practical aspect of the exam which involves using the different Google Tools such as Slides, G-Drive, Chrome, Sheets etc. Before completing the exam you need to sign a non-disclosure agreement confirming that you will not share any of the questions contained within, as such I am unable to go into any more specifics on the exam. For the most part, having used the software regularly over the last year and having spent time reviewing the online training I found that the exam was fairly straight forward. There was one tricky task using a feature within Sheets that I wasn't familiar with, but the 'open book' nature of the exam and the 3 hour time limit meant I had plenty of time to research how to complete the task and in doing so learned a new and useful feature of sheets. Even with this, I still finished the exam with over an hour to spare. Overall I would say that the extra training is time well spent in terms of building confidence and skills using the technology, gaining a certificate is always a positive, and joining a community of educators who have done the same makes me feel a part of a wider circle of educators looking to progress the profession in a digital age. For now, I can't wait to get back into the classroom to try out some of the new tricks I've learned, and then start working towards level 2. If your school uses Google for Education then I really couldn't recommend this CPD enough. Feel free to get in touch if you have any questions about Level 1 and I'll do my best to help.

Thanks for reading.

Laurence